The Foundation for Continuing Justice Blog

SANTA ANA, CA. – The Foundation for Continuing Justice, in partnership with the Law Firm of Higbee & Associates, is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual Criminal Record Policy Essay Competition. After reviewing outstanding essays from all over the country, four winners were...Read More

Governor Newsome signed bold expungement legislation to create automatic expungement for eligible offenders starting January 1, 2021. Not to be outdone by the efforts of Pennsylvania with its clean slate law or by Utah, who starts automatic expungement next May, the Golden State passed AB 1076...Read More

The Foundation for Continuing Justice and The Expungement Clearinghouse are making donations totaling $2,000 to three incredible organizations that support second chances for former offenders and provide job training to disadvantaged people. Taller San Jose Hope Builders is based in Santa Ana,...Read More

A bill proposed in the Texas State House has the potential to fix a huge inequity in the distribution of justice in Texas and clarify a judge’s power to provide judicial clemency to deserving former offenders. This bill will provide benefits that extend the individuals who will be directly...Read More

Higbee & Associates and Foundation for Continuing Justice 2016 Writing Competition SANTA ANA, CA. - The Foundation for Continuing Justice, in partnership with the Law Firm of Higbee & Associates, is pleased to announce the first annual Criminal Record Policy Essay Competition. In keeping...Read More

ORANGE COUNTY, CA.- The Foundation for Continuing Justice is preparing its 2016 pro bono calendar and is looking for community organizations to partner with in providing free or discounted legal services relating to post-conviction relief. The Foundation has a team of expert attorneys and case...Read More

What it Does Allows former-offenders who meet specified eligibility requirements and waiting periods (listed below) to petition a court to have all of their civil and firearm rights restored if they can prove with clear and convincing evidence that they are rehabilitated. - 1 day from the...Read More

Nevada is the only state in the west that does not allow former offenders to return to court and prove that they deserve to have their firearm rights restored. Yes, even liberal, anti-gun California allows it. If enacted, AB 357, would correct this problem by allowing some former offenders...Read More

The chorus of criticism surrounding the expungement provisions of Florida’s HB 86 reveals how little the critics understand of Florida’s existing record clearing laws. It also provides an excellent example of the how lawmakers selectively target injustice. If enacted, HB 86 would expand...Read More

The Foundation for Continuing Justice (FFC) is a non-profit legal foundation that provides free resources for former offenders and information about expungement laws to policymakers and the media. Membership in the FFCJ is free and all members receive the following benefits for...Read More

Senate Bill 391, which received unanimous support in the Senate, would provide widespread benefits to the people of Pennsylvania. Twenty-one states, including conservative states like Utah, Indiana Oklahoma and Alabama, have expanded their expungement laws within the past five years. The public...Read More

With the passing of HF 2576, Minnesotans took an important step toward statewide expungement reform. Sponsored by Rep. Carly Melin, the bill was passed by the House via 85-47 vote. HF 2576 extends expungement rights for people who have been convicted for petty misdemeanors and managed to stay...Read More

UPDATE: (Posted 10/26/2018) HB 2057, specifically regarding amending ARS 13-907, was never voted on in 2014 and remained a dead issue never to be resolved. You may send comments or complaints directly to Senate representative John Kavanagh-AZ or to his replacement at: John Kavanagh Office...Read More

Indiana House Bill 1155, which improves Indiana’s expungement law that went into effect last summer, has passed the Indiana Legislature and is awaiting approval from Governor Mike Pence. HB 1155 gives individuals who petition for an expungement the opportunity to correct the form if they made a...Read More

The Pennsylvania Senate voted unanimously today to pass Senate Bill 391, which allows some offenders with misdemeanor convictions to expunge their conviction after satisfying a waiting period. The Foundation actively campaigned for support of this bill. “We are a long way from enactment,”...Read More

Mathew Higbee, Chairman of the Foundation for Continuing Justice, testified in favor of changes to California’s expungement law in front of the California State Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, June 25th. Higbee was speaking in support of Senate Bill 530 (SB 530), authored by Senator...Read More

Last month, the proposed expansion to PA expungement law, Senate Bill 391,was referred to the Appropriations Committee where it needs to be scheduled for consideration by the Chairman, State Senator Corman. Please call Senator Corman's office on this toll free number (855-741-2094) and simply let...Read More

Indiana’s House Bill 1482 recently passed through the House with a vote of 78-19. This is Indiana’s first bill of its kind to allow for the expungement of crimes at various levels. House Bill 1482 was proposed by Representative Jud McMillin of Brookville and is supported by Representative...Read More

April 20, 2013 - The California State Senate Committee heard testimony from Foundation Chairman Mathew Higbee about the opportunity to achieve significant public policy objectives by expanding California's expungement law. Higbee said reduced recidivism and lower crime rates were two important...Read More

Recordclearing.org has posted an important article for California expungement law. Lead contributor in support of Senator Roderick Wright's bill, Attorney Mathew Higbee, is working towards expanding benefits for California's current expungement law. Expected to be approved by the committee, SB 530...Read More

RecordClearing.org has posted an interesting article about a proposed expungement bill in Indiana. Indiana’s expugement law is one of the strictest in the country. The current law only allows for the expungement of a record if a person was arrested, but no charges were filed in court. The law...Read More

RecordClearing.org has posted an interesting article about Kentucky House Bill 47. There are thousands of individuals in the state of Kentucky with past felony convictions. Expungements are currently unavailable for these individuals, and as a result, they are branded for life, unable to take more...Read More

Not every conviction is eligible for expungement, and there are limited options for individuals with certain convictions. If you are not eligible for an expungement due to the nature of your case, a pardon may be your next option towards criminal record relief. Pardon411.com is an informational...Read More

RecordClearing.org has posted an article about the sealing of arrest records in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, criminal records were acceptably sealed when they related to juvenile cases or those cases involving medical or mental issues of the subject of the record. The new trend of sealing criminal...Read More

RecordClearing.org has posted a useful article about the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez in New Mexico and how they have proven to be a success in the House, as Senate Bill 294 passed 40 to 26. The Bill is now in the hands of Governor Susana Martinez for final approval to become...Read More

On February 5th, 2013, sponsor Chris England, Democratic Representative of Tuscaloosa, proposed House Bill 56. The Bill would allow a person to expunge his or her arrest record if the person was not convicted of the crime he or she was arrested for. The Bill would also allow for expungement of...Read More

If signed into law, New Mexico Senate Bill 294 will allow some criminal records to be expunged. New Mexico law previously allowed for individuals to petition for post-conviction relief when new evidence surfaced to support a new trial, or when information was improperly obtained and used in the...Read More

There is a bill being proposed that would allow more people to be able to clear their PA criminal record. It would allow individuals who have misdemeanors of the 2nd and 3rd degree can apply to have the records expunged if they have kept a clean record for 7-10 years respectively. However,...Read More

A new law has been passed in Rhode Island which will allow more people with criminal records to clear their criminal history. Currently the law only allows for the expungement of a single felony or misdemeanor nonviolent crime by a first-time offender. If the proposed legislation is passed, a...Read More

The Kentucky House passed a bill that would allow for the expungement of Class D felonies after a waiting period has lapsed, which will allow more people with criminal records to clear their criminal history. It would allow for the expungement of Class D felonies after a waiting period has lapsed....Read More

A new law has been passed in North Carolina which will allow more people with criminal records to clear their criminal history. There was no such law in the past. Therefore, many people will now be able to clear their criminal convictions and move forward with their lives. To read the full...Read More

RecordClearing.com has posted an article about a bill that passed the Indiana House earlier this week. This article is a great source of information for people who are not eligible for expungement under the current law but might be under the future law if it passes the Senate. To read the...Read More

RecordClearing.com has posted an article about pardons in the State of Illinois. This article is a great source of information for people who are not eligible for expungement but would still like to clear their record. To read the article posted at URL. If you need help determining if you...Read More

An article was recently posted on RecordClearing.org regarding a background company that was must pay millions in a settlement. The law suit alleged that the company, HireRight, violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The background check company was not verifying criminal records, reporting...Read More

On April 9, 2012, a Minnesota case, State of Minnesota v. M.D.T, 2012 WL 1149347 (Minn.App.), was decided that helps many people convicted of a crime because it clarified the analysis of the five factors for determining whether expungement should be granted and allows for records held by agencies...Read More

Representatives from the Foundation for Continuing Justice will be presenting at the Southern California Gang Intervention Task Force Conference in Irvine, CA on May 30. The event, which is sponsored in-part by the Orange County Department of Education, will be held at the University of Southern...Read More

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the nation’s 35th largest and Pennsylvania's 2nd largest newspaper, featured an op-ed written by Foundation Chairman Mathew Higbee. The op-ed discussed a proposed modification to PA's expungement law sponsored by state senator Tim Solobay. “At a time when the...Read More

Attorneys from the Foundation, Natasha Buchanan and Mathew Higbee, provided information during two separate breakout session at the Orange County Education Departments Gang Intervention Conference on April 29, 2011. The conference was attended by approximately 500 leaders in the effort to help...Read More

The Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) will be hosting a Crime Prevention/Gang Conference at the University of California, Irvine on April 29, 2011. The OCDE has invited the Foundation for Continuing Justice to speak about the Criminal Record Clearinghouse project and strategies for...Read More

On April 5th, 2011, the Foundation for Continuing Justice introduced the Orange County Public Defender's Office to the Criminal Database Update service that they can refer to their clients. The Criminal Database Update service provides those that have had their criminal record expunged, sealed or...Read More

Mathew Higbee and Natasha Buchanan attended the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado from March 20, 2011 - March 22, 2011. On behalf of the Foundation, they made significant headway with several consumer reporting agencies (CRAs)...Read More

A few months after deploying the beta version of Pardon411.com, our free form generating web app, we have decided to rethink the way it works. Over the time since the site was launched we had thousands of visitors and nearly 200 people go through the online system to complete their pardon...Read More

On February 18, 2011, Higbee & Associates invited the Foundation for Continuing Justice to participate in an workshop at the Orange County One Stop Center in Irvine, California to a packed room of individuals. The event was co-sponsored by Orange County One Stop Center, supported by the County of...Read More

As of today, RecordClearing.org has reached 3000 members! This is amazing considering the new website has been up for less than 1 year. We are very excited about this and will continue to research, write, and publish helpful information about criminal record expungement and sealing. Thank you to...Read More